Sander S. Florman, MD, joins The Mount Sinai Medical Center As Director of the Recanati Miller Transplantation Institute
Sander S. Florman, MD, has been named Director of the Recanati Miller Transplantation Institute. Dr. Florman has significant experience in abdominal transplantation.
Sander S. Florman, MD, an expert in abdominal transplantation, returned to The Mount Sinai Medical Center on Thursday, October 1, as Director of the Recanati/Miller Transplantation Institute. Dr. Florman has significant experience and particular interest in pediatric and adult transplantation as well as complex hepatobiliary surgery.
Mount Sinaiis where I got my start, says Dr. Florman, who spent a year of his residency in the Liver Transplant Lab investigating the effects of brain death and ischemia/reperfusion injury in liver transplantation. Using animal models, he studied hypernatremia—elevated sodium levels—and how that impacts liver function after brain death. "I stood on the shoulders of giants here, so it is incredibly rewarding to return and take up a leadership position and work with so many familiar faces," says Dr. Florman. "It will be a fantastic team."
Dr. Florman is involved in a variety of investigator- and industry-sponsored clinical studies that focus on new immunosuppressants and ways to improve organ preservation. Most recently he was the principal investigator of an international study examining Belatacept, a novel immunosuppressant that is a co-stimulation blocker given as a monthly injection instead of the conventional twice daily oral treatment. The study showed the new drug dramatically reduced side effects caused by traditional immunosuppressants such as metabolic disease, including diabetes, and also hypertension and kidney damage.
Mount Sinai is very fortunate to have Dr. Florman back, said Michael Marin, MD, the Dr. Julius H. Jacobson II Chair in Vascular Surgery, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Surgery. "He is a gifted surgeon with a true passion for transplantation and he knows exactly how to bring the best out of his team."
Most recently, Dr. Florman was the Director of Liver Transplantation and Director of the Abdominal Transplant Institute at TulaneUniversityHospital, as well as Director of Transplantation at ChildrensHospital in New Orleans. After severe damages from Hurricane Katrina caused Tulane University Hospitalto shut down in 2005, he rebuilt the transplant program from the ground up. Less than six months after the storm, the hospital and its transplant program reopened, with patient volume returning to pre-hurricane levels a few months later.
The challenges of rebuilding were truly incredible, says Dr. Florman. "We had never encountered anything on this scale – actually nobody had – and there were so many unknowns. We had a flooded city and a flooded hospital. The hospital lost 40 percent of its staff, and many staff who did return to work lived in FEMA trailers."
No one had to come back, but those who did, myself included, felt a deep commitment to the city. We felt compelled to rebuild, he explains. "We put our careers on hold to do the right thing. To ensure financial viability, the University actually had to let go a full third of its faculty in order to retain the remaining two thirds – it was a very personally and professionally difficult and uncertain time."
Dr. Florman is well known in the national and international transplant community and has presented papers at many major scientific meetings. He has served on several national committees and boards and is a member of numerous national and international transplant and surgical societies, including American Society for Transplant Surgeons, American Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association, American Society of Transplantation, and Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract. He serves as a reviewer for several journals and has authored eight book chapters and over 75 papers in peer-reviewed journals.
Dr. Florman earned his medical degree from the University of Louisville School of Medicine. He began his general surgery training at TulaneUniversity during which time he spent one year in the Liver Transplant Lab at Mount Sinai. He completed his surgery residency at Tulane as the administrative chief resident and received many teaching and research awards as well as the Resident of the Year award from CharityHospital in New Orleans.
After completing his residency, Dr. Florman returned to Mount Sinai for a fellowship in multi-organ transplantation and hepatobiliary surgery. He then took a faculty position at Mount Sinai before returning to join the Tulane Transplant Team.
About The Mount Sinai Medical Center
The Mount Sinai Medical Center encompasses The Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai School of Medicine. The Mount Sinai Hospital is one of the nation’s oldest, largest and most-respected voluntary hospitals. Founded in 1852, Mount Sinai today is a 1,171-bed tertiary-care teaching facility that is internationally acclaimed for excellence in clinical care. Last year, nearly 50,000 people were treated at Mount Sinai as inpatients, and there were nearly 450,000 outpatient visits to the Medical Center.
Mount Sinai School of Medicine is internationally recognized as a leader in groundbreaking clinical and basic-science research, as well as having an innovative approach to medical education. With a faculty of more than 3,400 in 38 clinical and basic science departments and centers, Mount Sinai ranks among the top 20 medical schools in receipt of National Institute of Health (NIH) grants.
About the Mount Sinai Health System
Mount Sinai Health System is one of the largest academic medical systems in the New York metro area, with 48,000 employees working across seven hospitals, more than 400 outpatient practices, more than 600 research and clinical labs, a school of nursing, and a leading school of medicine and graduate education. Mount Sinai advances health for all people, everywhere, by taking on the most complex health care challenges of our time—discovering and applying new scientific learning and knowledge; developing safer, more effective treatments; educating the next generation of medical leaders and innovators; and supporting local communities by delivering high-quality care to all who need it.
Through the integration of its hospitals, labs, and schools, Mount Sinai offers comprehensive health care solutions from birth through geriatrics, leveraging innovative approaches such as artificial intelligence and informatics while keeping patients’ medical and emotional needs at the center of all treatment. The Health System includes approximately 9,000 primary and specialty care physicians and 11 free-standing joint-venture centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida. Hospitals within the System are consistently ranked by Newsweek’s® “The World’s Best Smart Hospitals, Best in State Hospitals, World Best Hospitals and Best Specialty Hospitals” and by U.S. News & World Report's® “Best Hospitals” and “Best Children’s Hospitals.” The Mount Sinai Hospital is on the U.S. News & World Report® “Best Hospitals” Honor Roll for 2024-2025.
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